I recently got my first hedgehog, from Craigs List. He is a 2 year old male, that we re-named Abner. I just have a few newbie questions. For being 2 years old, would it be reasonable to try to litter train him? Or would it be very unlikely for him to learn now? Also, while holding him today I noticed his ears are a little ragged looking, tattered even. I was wondering if this is normal and what I can do to help him? Thank you so much.

The tattered ears is almost always caused by a build up of dry skin and gunk. Try rubbing a little bit of vaseline onto them daily, you should start seeing improvement pretty soon.

As for the litter training, the best way is to put a litter tray under the wheel, which will collect the run-off. Between that and cleaning the wheel daily, 90% of it should be accounted for. Some hedgehogs will get the idea to poop there even when they're not on the wheel, and you can encourage it by putting any turds that are left elsewhere into the tray. Even if you're able to fully train your hedgehog for when he's in the cage, they can't be trained to "hold it" when they're outside the cage. It's inevitable that you'll get pooped on at least occasionally.

Here's the first pic we took of him. We've only had him a week and are in love. He is a huffy little guy for right now but we hope he gets use to us soon and becomes more friendly. I was also wondering what the best cat food is for us to feed him. The guy who sold him to us gave us a bag that he had been using, but it seems a very cheap generic brand. Also, will switching his food be hard for him? Sorry so many questions, just want to make sure everything is just right for him.

There's a sticky in the diet section that compares cat food brands. You want one that has 28-33% protein and under 15% fat. Personally I use Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul (adult light) which is very popular - one of the best choices, in my biased opinion, haha. He'll be fine with a food switch, just do it gradually. Mix a little of the new food in with the old food and slowly increase the amount every few days until the transition is done. Often hedgehogs will take to a new food very quickly on their own if they've been fed something that's crap, in which case you can go by how interested he is and whether there's any upset stomach in response (soft/mushy or greenish poops). The slow transition is a good guideline to start out with.

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